The Phoenix's Key
by Sarah Morley
Summary: If Hermione had left Hogwarts, abbandoning her identity as a witch, what would have happened to her future daughter? This is her story, and the tale of her fate.
1. Default Chapter

**The Phoenix's Key**

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_*~ Prologue~*_

Sarah Morley 

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A/N: Rewritten Version.

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"Mum! I hate corned beef! Can't I have ham or cheese or something remotely humane?" Winter shouted as she peered into her lunch box with disgust. 

"Not now! You have three minutes to get ready before your father starts shouting at everybody to get in the car." Her mother said, running into the kitchen zipping her dress up. 

"He's dropping me at the market on his way to work and it's too much of a hassle getting there alone." She swung open the fridge door and fished out a carton of apple juice.

"Give this too your brother will you." She chucked Winter the drink and pulled out a large basket from underneath the kitchen sink.

Winter sighed and bellowed:

"CEDRIC! YOUR APPLE JUICE!" 

"Winter!" Her mother hissed

Winter smiled sweetly.

"Don't you ever take that thing off?" She said, pointing at a small Ankh hanging on a simple silver chain. Ruth, her mother, fingered it.

"This? Oh no. Never. It was a gift from a friend a long time ago." 

Winter nodded and grabbed her school bag and her lunch box and started out the door onto the pavement, where her father was waiting, impatiently drumming his fingers on the roof of the car.

"Where is your mother?" He asked huffily.

"Coming." Winter slid into the back of the car next to her little brother and sister. The dreaded twins. It wasn't even eight o'clock yet and they were already kicking and punching each other. Winter squashed herself as far against the car door as was possible. She watched her mother lock the door behind her and scribble furious notes in her FiloFax.

"Will you hurry up!" Her father, Frank, shouted

"I'm right here!" Ruth shouted angrily

"You're not in the car, thus you are not here!" 

Her mum sighed angrily and slammed the car door behind her. 

"Now I am." She smiled sarcastically.

Frank snorted and sped away down the drive.

"Slow down!" Ruth shrieked, her hands gripping on the dashboard

Frank skidded around the corner and stamped on the brakes. The Mazda missed the street lamp by inches.

"Slow enough for madam?" He spat.

"Have you gone mad? Don't you think for an instant? You could have had us all killed!" 

"Ah yes. Or killed you, which wouldn't have been much of a loss."

Ruth's mouth dropped open. Frank covered his face with his hands

"I'm, sorry. I didn't mean that."

"You…I can't believe…you…" She got out the car and slammed the door shut.

"Don't you even think of coming home tonight. Stay with that bloody secretary of yours, I daresay she won't mind in the slightest. Children, get out the car, you're not going to school today." She shouted though the open window. Obediently, Winter grabbed Cedric and Venus's hands and pulled them off the back seat. They hadn't turned the corner when her father started following them down the road in the car.

"Ruth, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

"I don't care. You could have killed all of us. Get out of my sight. I don't want to see you again until you've had your license revoked and you're burning somewhere in Hell."

" Ruth in all my life I've never been sorrier about anything as much as I'm sorry about what I said."

Ruth snorted. She spun on her heel and gave Winter her keys.

"Go home. Plant yourselves in front of the telly or in the Library or go back to bed. Order whatever you want from your magazines or whatever." She reached through the open car window and grabbed Frank's wallet that was lying on the dashboard and pulled out his credit cards and threw the wallet in the dustbin on the curb of the road "Take advantage of it. You're not going to have a day like this until you're twenty-one and have a diploma in hand." Her finger shot up and pointed in the remote direction of home. Winter, too stunned to do anything but follow in a trance, her squirming siblings hands in her own. She vaguely heard her mother shouting words that would have made her cry if she was little and sleeping in sac pyjamas. Winter unlocked the door and led Cedric and Venus each to their rooms before heading to the sunroof. She stood there for what seemed like eternity, the wind blowing at her black hair. She heard footsteps behind her and felt her mother's hand on her shoulder.

"Funny. I thought you'd be on the phone ordering everything you'd ever wanted out of a Miss Selfridges's catalogue."

"Oh I will. But not now. It's too early to shop."

There was a moment's silence.

"Cedric and Venus are asleep. Best you be on your way too.

"Mum, I'm not seven. I'm not tired. And besides, I'm going to the library."

'The Library' as it was called was one of the biggest rooms in the large house. It was on the fifth storey, which was just under the sunroof. The fifth storey however, was the smallest of the levels. It had only three rooms and it was accessible only through a spiral staircase that was hidden behind the broom closet in the kitchen. Ruth had converted it into her study before Winter was even born. Ruth was a writer, acclaimed in Britain. Her works included titles such as Eternal and The Lady Of The Moon. The first room was her 'writing set' as she called it, and the second was the smallest room in the house. A single armchair sat inside in front of a wall-sized window that gazed out on a view of Coventry Park. No one apart from Ruth herself was allowed in there. The third room was the Library, where Winter settled that fateful morning, a copy of 'Mansfield Park' clamped safely in her hands. 

Winter hadn't started on Chapter 4 when she head unfamiliar sound of her mother's scream, coming from bellow her.

***

Winter bolted, scrambling around bookshelves, over sofas and stepping over coffee tables. The Jane Austen lay forgotten by the sofa. She flung open the door and ran as fast as she could down the spiral staircase into the kitchen, through the Dining room, out of the Living room and found herself slap bang in the middle of a scene that would stay in her mind for as long as she would live. Two men, dressed in black robes, stood in the Entrance hall, long pieces of Birch and Holly clenched possessively in their hands. One, the taller, had black tousled hair that grew in no particular direction and very round glasses. The other had tame brown hair, no glasses, but a grey and aged dog at his side. 

Her mother was standing ten feet away from them, her knuckles white and her eyes blazing with hatred.

"Get out." She hissed at them. The dog and Ruth's old cat, Crookshanks, were watching each other. Funnily enough, Crookshanks didn't attack it. He hated dogs.

"Wait-"

"Get out!" Ruth shrieked

"Will you just listen?"

"No! I've had it with listening to you! I listened to you for 7 bloody years and look where it got me! I've read your letters and I don't care! She's not going!"

"If you gave her a chance."

"I took that chances many years ago Potter and look where it got me."

"Listen, the Prophecies are starting to fulfil. 'The end of an age of Darkness will bring about another, Darker and restless, waiting to take it's revenge.' It's already happened. The Prophecies have to be fulfilled."

"You don't understand do you? Weren't you listening to Professor McGonnagal when she told us how imprecise a branch of magic Divination was? So a new era has dawned, when did Trelawney make that one up, while staring at the headlines?" Ruth snorted

"Trelawney's dead. You know the Prophecies aren't hers."

"Does that change anything? Prophecies never come true Potter! You know as well as I do that they don't! If they did you, Weasley and practically all of Hogwarts would be dead by now!" Ruth screamed

The man sighed and took off his hat.

"You owe me at least this." 

"No. I owe you this." She shouted and pulled at the Ankh on her neck. The man called Potter lowered his eyes. 

No one spoke for a minute. 

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Winter asked. No one had seen her so far, hidden behind one of the pillars by the large stairway. Ruth's head snapped around, eyes full of alarm.

"Go back to bed Winter."

"No. Wait. Stay." The man said.

"She's my daughter, Potter, she'll do what I tell her." Ruth hissed.

"She has to know, Hermione."

"Shut up! Shut up Potter! That's not my name! My name is Ruth Tumber. I'm married, I have three children and I'm an acclaimed writer throughout Britain! I went to school in Trinity and Cambridge for University!" She shouted. "Now get out! Get out now!" She pointed her shaking finger at the opened mahogany door.

Something inside the dark-haired man snapped. He ran forward and pinned Winter's mother to the wall. Winter shrieked and ran at him, but the other man caught her by the shoulders.

"I'm so sorry. But you have to know." He whispered.

The dog bit her skirt and pulled her back, tripping her and landing her face first on the marble. She lifted her head up and saw the man with glasses start to shout.

"You name is Hermione Granger! You are a WORLD-acclaimed witch! You went school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and never went to University! Get the truth right Granger, and deal with it!" 

Ruth-or Hermione as she was apparently really called- was shaking profusely, she reached for the phone, but the man pointed the piece of Holly in his hand at it and it flew against the wall, breaking into a million pieces. 

Winter's mother collapsed onto the floor, her face in her hands.

"Damn you Potter! It's your own bloody fault I'm here! Why couldn't you have left me alone!" She shouted, her voice uneven and dry from sobbing.

"Because I love you Hermione. At least I did. We all did."

***

Mid day came and went, and the men, whose names Winter had found out to be Harry Potter and Odysseus Devor were still sitting in number 5 Ulverscroft lane. Within two hours, Winter had found out more about the world than she had in all her 11 years.

After putting her mother to sleep with the wood they were always holding, receiving a good many thumps from Winter and managing to wrestle her onto the couch, the two men had proceeded to tell her everything. About how her mother was a witch and went to school with them at an Academy called Hogwarts 15 years ago. About magic in it's own respect and about what she was. A witch. Just like her mother.

"But how is that possible?" Winter stuttered, wringing her hands like a flannel. "I can't be a witch. It's just not possible!"

"Why isn't it possible?" Harry Potter asked.

"Because it just – isn't!"

Odysseus Devor laughed

"I quote the man who told me I was a wizard Winter: " Not a wizard eh? Never made things happen when you were scared or angry?" Harry Potter asked.

Winter looked away. Perhaps, a few times, it was true. When Donna had been in a car crash and had laid in a coma for weeks, and one day when Winter was visiting her, and she'd collapsed in tears at the sight of her best friend lying there helpless, and the life support machines had started to buzz and the heart monitor's beat had lost all sense of rhythm and Donna's eyes had snapped open. But that couldn't have been…but then what about the time in the bookstore when she was the twin's age, and her parents wouldn't buy her a book. Winter had thrown a temper tantrum and the book, miraculously had flown straight from her hand onto the counter. No she could have thrown it. But there was a bookshelf blocking her way. It would have had to turn around it. 

Winter looked up at the two men, who were watching her. Odysseus smiled.

"Winter, you are a witch. You had a 50 / 50 chance of becoming one and you took your mother's path."

Silence reigned over them for a moment. 

Harry Potter sighed. 

"I think it's time we woke her up. We have things to tell her. We can't leave until it's done." 

He took out the holly that he had told Winter was his wand and pointed it at Ruth – or Hermione –or Ruth. Winter didn't know anymore

"_Enervate._"

Her mother's eyes fluttered open. It took her a few moments to realise where she was and who were the people around her. Then she screamed.

"Shut up!" Harry Potter hissed, clamping a hand over her mouth. 

It was the strangest feeling. Winter had thought she'd known her mother. But now all she'd thought to be real had been thrown over her head. It was like she was looking at a strange spirit occupying her mother's body. It wasn't the same person. The woman sitting rigidly straight on the white sofa wasn't the same woman that she had known for 11 years. Winter didn't know what to make of her. 

"Hermione listen" Harry Potter hissed. "We've told her alright! She knows!"

Her mother's eyes brimmed with tears as she struggled to push the man's hand of her mouth. 

"We've told her about Hogwarts, we've told her about magic and we've told her she's a witch. There are some things she'll come to find out in the next few years. But now there are things we need to tell you." 

He released his grasp on her face and she sprung back. Her eyes darted from Harry Potter to Winter to the dog to Odysseus Devor. She turned back to Harry Potter and to Winter and collapsed her head into her hands

"Hermione there are things we can't tell you right now, that you'll find out in the time to come. It might be years, it might be months, but either way, we can't tell you."

Harry Potter said. Hermione-Ruth gave a hollow laugh.

"You come in barging into my life, wrecking everything that I've struggled for and un-surfacing the life I left behind for a reason you know is good and you expect me to let you say this? I deserve to know what the hell is going on and why my daughter has to be whisked away from me! Damn it don't you understand! I can't live like this! It's not me! It's not the way I chose to lead my life!"

"How you chose to lead your life and how you need to lead you life are two separate things. Dumbledore told me before he died that you can't be who you want to be. You have to be who you need to be. Isn't that enough of a reason? No Hermione there are things we can't tell you, and we have as much a right not to tell you as you do not to tell Winter why you left. But there is one thing we can give you. You might want it for later."

Harry Potter said. Odysseus Devor was staring out the window completely detached. The dog limped over to a satchel that lay in the middle of the room and gave it to Harry Potter. He opened it and pulled out a long thin box. Hermione-Ruth sobbed. 

"I don't want it! You've taken Winter from me isn't that enough? Can't you content yourself with that? I've lived without it for 15 years Harry! I can survive without it now!"

"You have. But you might not for long." Odysseus Devor said. They were the first words he'd spoken to her. Harry Potter put the box on her lap.

"Your call. Do you want to live or not?"

"Stupid question. Do you think I have the choice?" She snapped

"No. I know you don't. But it'll help you." 

Hermione-Ruth sobbed.

"I can't do this!"

"You can. You defeated Him. You can do anything." 

"I can't! I can't do this! I thought I'd proved that to you long ago!"

"No. You proved to me that every person could be afraid. I never thought I'd see you tremble."

"It's been too long! I can't do anything! I've lost everything!"

"You can't. It's impossible." 

He reached forward and opened the box. It was a wand.

"Just try. You'll see."

She coughed harshly and reeled forward. Harry Potter put the wand in her hand.

"Please. For this." He touched the Ankh on her chest. She looked at him through her tears

"It's not going to work."

"Like you once told me: how do you know if you don't?"

She sobbed. 

"I can't."

"You can."

"No! No I can't!"

"Priori Incatatem." Odysseus Devor whispered. 

She nodded and whispered though her bitten lips.

"Priori…Priori Incatatem." 

There was a moment where nothing happened. Then a flash of white light and two words stretched across the air.

_Aeternus Eternus. _

Eternity

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	2. The Hogwarts Express again.

~* Chapter 1 *~

The Hogwarts Express Again

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Winter stared resolutely out of the window, determined not to look at her family. Venus and Cedric were quite happily playing a game of peek-a -boo in the corner of the compartment, her father looked gaunt and tired, and her mother was constantly fiddling with her necklace. It looked like quite a normal family trip to London. But it wasn't. It was quite the opposite.

Winter never thought her life could have changed as quickly. She'd gone from an average 11 year old to a soon-to-be-trained witch faster than her eyebrows could shoot under her hairline. 

All her life, Winter had known there was more to the world than over-confident politicians and dishonest salesmen.

All her life, Winter had known that there were far more things to learn than just school curriculum.

All her life, Winter had known there were creatures and people who were hiding from the eyes of the approaching

But she'd never though there was this much.

Hidden behind lost keys and sudden appointments, there was a world where magic was the soul of the world. A world where everything made sense. A world where chaos came in reigns.

And Winter was part of it.

She was going to learn how to tackle it head on.

***

"The 10 o'clock train from Manchester has arrived at Platform 4."

Winter's eyes snapped open. 

Venus and Cedric were already trotting out of the compartment. Her dad was lugging the trunk off the bench and her mother looked paler than Winter had ever seen her. Paler, in fact, than she had been when they'd stepped through the arch and into Diagon Alley. 

Winter got up and jumped out of the compartment. The familiar sight of Cedric and Venus fighting and yelling and pulling each other's hair greeted her. Winter sighed. She wouldn't miss them. That was for sure. She fetched a cart for her trunk and waited for her parents. Her father came out looking strangely surprised, while Winter glimpsed her mother tucking her wand into her bag. Frank Tumber bent over stiffly and put the trunk on the cart. Winter's eyebrows shot up. It was weightless. She followed her family through the knot of platforms and grumpy looking people. Every so often she glimpsed people with owl cages like hers on top of trunks and once, a fox perched on the shoulder of a girl with very curly brown hair.

She stopped, quite suddenly, In front of a barrier.

"Right. Here we are." 

The little colour that was left on her mother's face disappeared. 

Venus and Cedric stopped kicking each other in the shins for second to let themselves be hugged by Winter. But only briefly.

Her dad, in his turn, hugged his daughter. He pulled a small package from his pocket.

"I think you should open this on the train." He said, in a funny, strangled voice. Winter nodded. 

"Frank, take the children to the café next to WHSmith. I'll meet you there in about twenty minutes or so." 

Winter watched as her father, brother and sister walked off into the crowd for what felt like the last time.

Her mother sighed. Winter looked around her. Platform 8, platform 9, platform ten. But no platform 9 3/4. What on earth was going on?

"Winter, we have to walk through the barrier."

"Wha-?"

"We walk. Through the barrier." 

Winter just looked at her mother as if she was a mental escapee. But as her mother walked resolutely towards the barrier, Winter felt her legs pull her along, like some strange kind of gravitational force. She closed her eyes and prayed for her owl's safety. But nothing happened. She braved a peek and her jaw dropped. In front of her, through gaggles of weeping families and nagging mothers stood a magnificent crimson train, the words Hogwarts Express neatly written on it's side.

A funny scene was taking place in the corner of her eye. She turned and watched, her head tilting ever so slightly to the side.

A tall, silver-haired man stood ten feet away from her mother, eyeing her with an expression of contempt. Behind him, a boy she presumed was his son was watching the scene expressionlessly; a woman by his side had her head turned away. Hermione's eyes however, were on that woman.

"Hello Draco. Hello Ginny."

"Hello. I don't think you've met our son, Appolyon? But I daresay you didn't stick around long enough for that." The man called Draco said, an irritating smirk on his lips.

"Leave her alone Draco." 'Ginny' said. 

"Shame. Ginny here wanted so much to invite you to our wedding. We never knew where you were. I, myself, couldn't care less. But Ginny missed you. Ginny, why don't you invite your friend over for tea? I think she'd quite like the mansion." He said, ignoring his wife.

Hermione looked like she'd sunken into a mud pile of shock.

"Didn't you hear your wife, Malfoy? Shut up." 

The same redheaded man who had given Winter her letter appeared behind them. Ginny turned away and walked off towards the train.

"Dear me, Ronald. Don't tell me YOU'RE sticking up for her?" He nodded towards Hermione.

"Leave – her – alone." The man said, enunciating each word as if they were his last.

"Winter, come on. Let's go find you a compartment." Winter felt her mother's trembling hand on her wrist pulling her away from the two glowering men.

"Mum, what-." 

Hermione shook her head.

"I can't tell you Winter. It's too complicated. Some of it I don't even know."

Winter opened her mouth to argue but though better of it. They found a compartment almost at the end of the platform. There was nobody in it, so Winter had no trouble fitting her trunk on one of the benches. Athena, her owl, hooted thankfully as Winter poured a few owl treats into the feeding bowl. Hermione was sitting on the bench opposite her, her head in her hands. 

She stood up, eyes red and puffy, and hugged her daughter.

"Have a good term, Mina. I'll send you owls as often as I can." And with that, she left the compartment, leaving Winter to wonder who Mina was. But she didn't wonder long. Not a minute after her mother had left; a lost looking boy slid the door open.

"Anyone sitting there?" He asked, pointing at the bench opposite Winter. She shook her head no and the boy sat down in front of her. 

The boy looked remarkably like the man who had told 'Draco' to leave her mother alone. He had the same flaming red hair and long nose. She only difference was that the boy's freckles were barely visible behind a painful looking sunburn. 

He stared out the window and mouthed a few words at a blond woman outside. The redheaded man appeared beside her and waved at him. 

"Is he your father?" Winter asked.

"Yeah. And that's my mum. " He said, pointing at the woman.

Winter nodded.

"Does your father know my mum?"

"Don't know. Who's your mum?"

"Erm…Hermione? I think her last name's Granger."

The boy looked at her with newfound interest.

"You'll be Winter then? My dad told me to look out for you. My name's Rowan Weasley." His hand shot up from next to him and hung in mid-air

Winter stared, before shaking his hand. 

"My Dad knew your mom when they were in school I think. I found a box with-"

But what the box contained, Winter never knew. The same girl Winter had seen in the station with a fox perched on her shoulder walked into the compartment, the fox now trotting happily at her feet.

The girl was very pretty. Her brown curly hair was kept in perfect ringlets and her grey eyes were unanimously obvious next to her cheeks full of freckles.

Winter felt like a little girl next to her. She looked more like her grand-mother than either of her parents: she had very straight, very black hair, and icy blue eyes that everyone said looked like sapphires in the night but Winter thought looked like her lips when she'd gone swimming in a freezing cold lake. Her skin very pale too, so her name was appropriate for her appearance.

In front of her, Rowan sighed exasperatedly.

"And this is Cassandra if-you-don't-listen-to-me-you-will-die Devor. Personally I like her brother a whole lot more."

"Troy? He's a bugger if I ever knew one!" The girl said, pushing her trunk with her foot into the compartment. She slumped down on the bench next to Winter and extended her hand. 

"Cassandra Devor. I don't have a middle name, although some insanely stupid people might think so."

"Winter Tumber. I think I've met your dad." Winter managed to say. Cassandra nodded as if this were perfectly normal and turned back to Rowan

"I got a few letters from Lily and James during the holidays. Lily sounded really excited to start school. Mind you, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference. She's already learnt the entire first year curriculum. James just sounded as if a manticore had trampled on him." She said.

Rowan looked at Winter and saw she had no idea what she was talking about. 

"James and Lily are our friends, they're Harry's." Cassandra opened her mouth to speak. "Well, _Professor_ Potter's children, they're twins. A manticore is this kind of weird, disfigured beast." He said, wrinkling his nose at the last sentence "Fascinating creatures though. Mind, I don't think I'd like to be in a ten mile radius of one, even if I had the choice between that or eating a blood lolly."

Cassandra smiled. The Fox was now sleeping soundly in her lap. She saw Winter looking at it. 

"Gorgeous isn't he?" 

"What? Oh, yeah." Winter stuttered. 

"I called him Reynard. We found him in Scotland a few years ago. We think he was abandoned by his mother."

"'We' being you and Cliodna who probably abducted him."

"Shut up Rowan. Content yourself with your kneazle. What did you name her again? Kina? How original!" 

It took Winter a while to see what Cassandra was talking about, then she saw a strange creature emerging from a basket, looking very offended. It was the most bizarre creature she had seen yet, including the dancing rats in the Magical Menagerie, a shop in Diagon Alley. It looked like a small cat; only it couldn't possibly be one. It was ginger with black spots all over. It's over sized ears looked like Cedric's pet mouse's and its tail was that of a lions.

Rowan was smiling at Winter.

"Funny thing isn't she!" He picked Kina up by the front paws and cradled her in his arms. 

"She won't hurt her master, which is more than I can say for t_hat_." He nodded towards the fox disdainfully.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Cassandra said stiffly, scratching the fox's belly, though it was quite obvious that she did.

Rowan grinned. 

"Pull up your sleeve." 

Cassandra rolled up her sleeve. Nothing.

"The _other_ sleeve Cassandra."

Cassandra rolled her eyes and pulled up her right sleeve. There were several scratch and bite marks on it.

"Troy stepped on his tail." Cassandra said defensively.

"Of course he did. Troy does everything." Rowan said sarcastically.

Cassandra sniffed.

"I'm going to look for Cliodna."

"You do that."

Cassandra walked huffily out of the compartment. 

"She's not always like that. Only when she's stressed or irritated. But the rest of the time she's rather nice." He said and turned back to Kina, who was washing herself. Winter's lips stretched into a smile. It didn't last long. Rowan's father and whom she assumed was his wife walked into the compartment.

"Haven't we left yet?" Rowan said confusedly. 

"Look out the window." The woman teased. Winter looked out of the window. A bad tempered woman was shaking a finger at her son who was looking as if he'd heard this line one too many times.

"Winter? You all right?" Winter's head snapped around. Rowan's dad was looking at her.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you."

He nodded.

" You don't know me and neither do I know you. My name is Ron Weasley and this is my wife Jehanne. I knew your mother when we went to school together." He stared out the window for a moment " You'll probably meet our other children, Gareth, Leanne, Lucy and Mika later. They're somewhere around anyway." 

He turned to his wife.

"Have you seen any of them?"

"Not since they ran off." She said, shaking her head.

"I don't believe it. How many times have we told them?"

She gently laid a hand on his arm.

"You sound like Percy." She said, a half smile inching onto her face. 

Ron Weasley sighed. 

"We'd better go and find them. Winter, Rowan, have a good term." He said bluntly and walked off, his wife behind him, shaking her head.

"He worries too much. Last night he was hitting the stove all the time because he thought that it wasn't cooking the chicken well. Instead we had burnt chicken because the stove got fed up with him." 

Winter smiled weakly and looked out the window. 

Kina was now purring contentedly in Ron's lap. Reynard had stayed in the compartment to sleep, and Athena was hooting sleepily in her cage.

Five minutes hadn't passed when the train started moving finally. Rowan waved a hearty good-bye to his parents whereas Winter couldn't see her mother. Something about the whole situation was bothering her. From 'Mina' to 'Aeternus Eternus'. 

But she couldn't put her finger on the thing that was bothering her most.

***

A few hours into the journey, when Rowan had finished telling Winter all about Quidditch, Lily, James, Harry Potter, and kneazles, Cassandra walked back into the compartment, pale behind her freckles. Rowan stopped talking abruptly and Winter stopped worrying about whether or not the Wronski Feint should be considered as a foul.

"Cliodna…King…" She stuttered. Rowan stood up abruptly.

"No."

"Ah."

Cassandra said dumbly and fell onto the bench, staring ahead of her, her mouth slightly open. She looked as if someone had hit her over the head with a cricket bat. Hard.

"Oh my-" 

Rowan, in his turn, fell onto the bench. At that moment, Winter would have given anything to know what was going on. 

"What is it? What happened?"

Rowan looked at her. Cassandra had sunk too deep in stupor to notice what was going on around her. 

"Cliodna was killed. By Mathias King." He said. Winter thought it sounded like the title of a book.

"What?"

Rowan looked at her, confused.

"Don't you know?"

"Don't I know what?" Winter said impatiently.

"About Mathias King?"

"Who?" 

"Haven't you heard of him?"

"I've heard of Stephen King."

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter. Who's Mathias King?

"He's the man Seth is possessing."

"What?" Winter was totally lost now. Rowan was gaping at her.

"Your mom didn't tell you?"

"Didn't tell me what, exactly?" Winter asked stiffly.

"Bugger."

Rowan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I don't know. I don't think I'm the right person to tell you."

He sighed.

"You'll have to talk to Harry. I think he's most adept to tell you."

There was a silence in the compartment. A silence Winter thought was out of respect for someone she didn't even know. Shaking profusely, Cassandra lay down, resting her head on Rowan's lap.

He stroked her hair sympathetically, while Reynard whimpered and curled up in a ball under Cassandra's feet. 

The compartment door slip open, and the boy Winter had seen standing by the two people called Ginny and Draco walked in.

"Rowan, I want a word."

"You can have two. Sod off."

" One, for the first time ever; I'm actually serious. Two, I will not sod off. The last time someone told me to sod off they came dangerously close to losing their nose."

"What do you want?"

" Your father and my father have been in a bloody fight again." He said, glancing around him to make sure no one was seeing him talk to a lowly Gryffindor.

"So? It's not like they're on the same side of the battlefield, is it?" Rowan said, stretching out each word to it's full capacity. Winter had a strange feeling he was trying to keep the boy standing there as long as humanely possible. 

"This time it's different. Your father has threatened to disown my mother from the Weasley family if she doesn't leave my father. Which I, personally think is an honour, but my mother wants to keep her past."

"Didn't they disown her when you were born? You know, seeing your ugly face and all must have been enough for them." Rowan said, nonchalantly playing with Kina's collar.

"Shut up Weasley." The boy hissed. "I'm serious. You tell your father to let my family be. If you don't, I'll set Armin on you." He nodded to a very tall boy next to him, who was cracking his knuckles irritably.

"I've had it with your father and your uncles trying to pull my family apart. I've lived through it for my entire life and I think you'd better stop."

He said all this very slowly, his voice trembling with anger. His eyes were on fire, and his upper body was hunched forwards.

Rowan sighed, and opened his mouth to speak, but the boy had turned to Cassandra.

"Socialising with mudbloods are we?" He growled, shooting a disgusted glance at Winter. "Isn't that against your principales?" 

Cassandra leapt to her feet, her eyes still red and puffy, and Rowan grabbed Kina's basket. The kneazle watched him menacingly, bearing an expression that may as well have been written on her forehead: 'Don't-you-dare.' while Reynard was growling and bearing his fangs at the boy.

"Get out." She said, her voice unsteady, the wand in her hand shaking so violently Winter was afraid it would snap. 

"Get out, NOW!"

The boy rolled his eyes. 

"See you at school. If you make it. Don't think they'd be too pleased to hear you'd been threatening a student. Dear me! You won't even make it to your first lesson." He laughed and walked calmly out of the compartment. Kina's basket hit the door hard. Kina hissed and stared at the basket. It returned to it's normal shape, as if by magic (then again, Winter thought. I t probably was.) And Kina jumped protectively inside

"Stupid git." Rowan said, eyes ablaze. Cassandra however was quickly scribbling something onto a torn piece of parchment. She rolled it up, and turned to Winter.

"Mind if I borrow your owl?" She asked. Winter nodded and unlocked Athena's cage. She watched as Cassandra tied the note to Athena's leg and opened the window. Athena spread her wings and flew towards an approaching forest. 

A second after she'd disappeared behind the trees, another owl flew out from a window.

After the window was safely shut and Cassandra, Rowan and Winter had slipped on their robes, Winter's curiosity got the better of her.

"What was that all about?"

Cassandra's lips thinned and she busied herself locking her trunk.

Rowan sighed.

"That," He said, pointing at the door. "Was Appolyon Malfoy. His dad married my aunt a few years after they graduated. My grandparents act as if she didn't exist, but I think it hit my dad and my uncles hard. From the little I know, they were all really protective of her, being the only sister they had, and there's traditionally been a lot of hatred flaring between my family and the Malfoys. My dad thinks Aunt Ginny is under the Imperius curse, this kind of curse that puts people under trances and lets other people dictate what they do. Really dangerous, it is. The ministry had a lot of problems with it at one stage. Anyway, my mum, she's a dark arts expert, she says my aunt has none of the characteristics that a person under the Imperius Curse has, and anyway, she says, she would have learnt to beat it by now. I don't think he wants to believe her though."

He was interrupted by a voice echoing through the compartment and corridors of the train, as it grinded to a halt.

"We have reached Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Winter felt the colour draining from her face. Cassandra looked as if she was going to be sick, while Winter could swear Rowan's sunburn had turned green. 

"Best be off then." Rowan said in an odd, strangled voice.

Cassandra bit her lip, and led the two others out of the compartment. The corridors were squashed with people trying to get out. 

"Bloody David. He ran off with Alysha to get the best carriage!"

Winter turned her head slightly and saw a disgruntled looking boy talking to what looked like his brother.

Winter felt a hand on her wrist pulling her forwards. She turned around again.

"Come on." Rowan said, a twinge of impatience in his voice.

Winter jumped down from the train.

"Firs' years! Over here! Come on! Any more? Oi you! Over Here!"

Winter's head snapped to her right and felt her jaw drop. A gigantic man, the size of a whale, at least, face barely visible behind a huge tangle of what was in fact his hair and his beard was standing in front of a sea of what she presumed were first years. Again, Rowan pulled her over to the growing huddle of students in black robes. 

"Every one here? Good! Hey, wait jus' one second." 

He marched forward and grabbed a boy who was heading to the carriages with everyone else. 

"Firs' years are over there!" He growled. "It's the same for every one!" He pushed the boy over to the group and Winter saw a smirk pass on Rowan's face as the boy turned out to be no other than Appolyon Malfoy, who looked rather disgruntled.

"All righ' then? Righ'! Follow me!"

They followed the gigantesque man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Looking back, Winter had no idea how she could possibly have done that, because in the short amount of time that she was on that path, she must have broken at least five bones without ever noticing. Needless to say, they were very cramped. Winter didn't want to think of how the man was doing.

"An' tha', ladies and gen'le men, is Hogwarts." The man beamed at them, Winter turned her neck and couldn't help the short gasp that came from her mouth. Indeed, it was certainly worth it. 

Beyond the students and the man's form, was what seemed to be a huge black lake. And high atop a mountain on the other side, was a humongous castle, it's light bearen windows shimmering in the night sky and Winter could just make out the many turrets and towers stretching around the castle.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the man called, pointing to a long line of boats sitting in the water by the shore. Winter, Rowan and Cassandra all climbed into the same boat. Everyone else either seemed to know someone already, or they didn't fancy sitting with them, but no one else joined them. 

"Everyone in?" the man shouted. "Righ' then – FORWARD!" 

Winter's nails dug into the side of the side of the boat as it jerked forward, practically sending a half-sobbing Cassandra to the bottom of the boat. Winter, however, hardly noticed. Her eyes were on the castle ahead. In all her life she had never seen anything like it. She doubted she ever would.

"Can't non-magical people see it?" Winter asked

"Muggles? Nah, not smart enough. Well, they are, but they don't look hard enough. They can't see Hogwarts. They think it's just some kind of ruin. Of course there are those stupid ones who climb it, good fun to them, I guess. But then they appear as if ghosts and walk through the walls as if they were climbing invisible stairs. But even then they can't see us. Daft pricks." Rowan said, laughing slightly.

Cassandra shot him a death stare through red eyes.

"Cliodna's mother was a muggle, Rowan."

Rowan bit his lip.

"Sorry. I completely forgot." He said apologetically.

Cassandra sniffed and turned away, staring into space. After a few minutes, they neared a large cave.

"Min' yer heads!" The man shouted.

Rowan pulled Winter down instinctively by her shoulders, cowering under the bench. Cassandra hadn't moved from the bottom of the boat, so she was in no danger.

The boats grinded to a halt along side a stone quay.

"All right then?" The man bellowed. A few rocks fell from the top of the cave into the water.

"Sorry." He muttered, keeping his voice down.

He led them up a set of stone steps and knocked three times on a large oak door.

It swung open immediately.

A blonde lady with a witch's hat perched on her head beamed down at them.

"Thank You Hagrid. I will take them from here."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


End file.
